Turkey, Duck,and three breeds of hens in one incubator

[husnain83]

Hi friends,

Its my first time on this forum, and i am also a newbie in incubation, bought an automatic 48 egg incubator, so far it is going fine; i have following confusions, would be really thankful if someone could clarify plz,

1. Duck, turkey and chicken eggs at 37.7 and 58% humidity, would it work if all eggs are fertile ? should i adjust it ?
2. What should i do after 18 days in this situation ?
3. I am at 7th day, what should i expect to see in all three types of eggs if i candle?
4. I candled a few, they are dark on one side (4/5th), and rest is bright, are they ok ? when should i decide to throw away non-ferile ones and how do i recognize those ?
5. How often can i take them out for candling and does that effect incubation ?

I am really confused on these things, googled a bit and found variety of answers

Husnain

 

[IncubatorWarehouse.com]

Hi I'm Steve from IncubatorWarehouse.com. Congratulations on starting your first hatch! Your hatch will work, although the hatch rate may be a bit lower for a few reasons:

Duck eggs require a slightly higher humidity (50-60% whereas chicken and turkey require 45-50%). I would recommend bringing your humidity down to around 50% to meet in the middle.

The incubation period is also longer for Turkey and Duck which is 28 days. Chickens only take 21 days. You can refer to this chart for more on incubation periods.

After day 18, if you're using an auto egg turner, remove the chicken eggs and the racks from the turner and place the eggs where you removed the racks. This will allow the duck and turkey eggs to continue turning for a few more days.

When you candle the eggs it is normal to see a light spot in the bigger end of the egg, this is the air pocket where the bird will take it's first breaths. If the egg is fertile you will see veins on the inside of the shell.
Taking the eggs out to candle every now and then won't affect incubation since the eggs hold the temperature much longer than the air.

I hope I've been able to guide you in the right direction and hope I haven't confused you further. You can refer to this guide for more help. Good luck!!

 

[husnain83]

Hi Steve, thanks a million for taking out time and writing in such details, i am relieved for the most part now , its my first hatch so somewhat confused and tense . Any way i candled and except for 5 eggs all are fine, when i broke the five 4 were confirmed dead while fifth turkey egg was alive whose veins i couldnt see from outside ;( i am so upset since yesterday on this that i cant tell. Please tell me if my humidity is around 57% for first 8 days and as you mentioned for chicken it should be around 50, would this have damaged my chicken eggs so far ? would they still hatch ?

Husnain

 

[IncubatorWarehouse.com]

The humidity shouldn't have damaged your chicken eggs, you should still have a decent hatch. Humidity is not as important as temperature is. What are you using to candle? Sometimes it helps to have a good candler to know for sure whether eggs are or are not fertile. I personally recommend the Incu-Bright egg candler. You can read more about it here. You'll be surprised how much you learn from your first hatch. By your next hatch you'll be an expert!

 

[husnain83]

Hi Steve,

Thanks you so much indeed, well i am very much relived now, just a quick question, i bought a digital and analog thermometer to verify my incubator temperature setting, its a forced air chinese model, when i placed the probe between eggs, temperature was around 36, but when i placed it on roof near fan, temperature was 37.7, is this ok ?

 

[IncubatorWarehouse.com]

When I've incubated, I've found that when the probe is actually touching the eggs it throws the temperature off slightly, than if it was hanging in mid air. I wouldn't worry much about it especially since you're using a forced air incubator. How many days do you have until hatching day? Let me know how it goes!

 

[husnain83]

Hey ... i am just entering 20th day, saw a couple of eggs move a bit, other then that no big movement, i am getting a bit nervous/tense now , was wondering if incubator thermometer is correct or not ? and so many thoughts everywhere, i have got 51 eggs in there, candled them around 15th day, they were all doing fine, don't know what happens now, fingers crossed....i will let you know as soon as i see my first baby

 

[husnain83]

Hey Steve i am so so so happy, got my first two chicks on day 21, cute n fluffy roaming every where in incubator , got four more on day 22, and three more zipping i think my temperature was a bit low, though incubator showing 37.8, but two other external ones showed around 37, well how long more should i wait ? and should i take the 21st days chick out now ? it should be more then 36 hour, they might be very hungry ....

 

[husnain83]

i mean for how many more days should i wait before discarding around 20 eggs ? should i candle them or what ? what if they are moving ?

 

[IncubatorWarehouse.com]

AWESOME!! I'm so glad to hear it! Well done!

I like to take out the hatched chicks that are mostly dry in "batches" about every 4 hours. The idea behind this is that you aren't constantly letting the hot air/humidity escape too often. As soon as a chick hatches they can generally go about 48 hours without any food or water. As far as the unhatched eggs I typically wait about 24-48 hours before discarding them. If there is movement I would wait.